"After my stomach was made smaller in size, I can eat whatever I want and do not gain weight"

2012/11/15

52-year-old woman from Kiev Pauline told us at the first meeting of the club "The winning weight" how she decided on surgery

"I begged the doctors to make a surgery"

- Two years ago, my stomach was reduced, removing the zone where hormones responsible for appetite were produced, - says 52-year-old Pauline from Kiev. - I was one of the first patients, which used a new technique. Doctors have warned about the possible complications, but I begged them to help me, because I could not cope with being overweight anymore. And although I was not so big but only - one hundred kilograms, - I knew that genetically I was predisposed to gain weight steadily, while I have a big mother and sister.

* Two years ago, Pauline decided on surgery to reduce stomach. Due to this she lost weight and not gaining it anymore. About her experience she says openly, not forgetting to thank the surgeon Ivan Todurov, which introduced a new technique for the treatment of obesity.

Photo by Sergey Tushino, "FACTS"

When I came to the surgeons, they first even tried to talk me out of operation, they said to try to lose weight on my own. I told them in details about many unsuccessful attempts. I regularly starved for two weeks, but then the weight came back instantly. In addition, I controlled the amount of food, gave up on sweet, fatty, starchy foods and all this did not bring success. Only after the operation I reached my desired weight - 70 kilograms. At my age, less is not need. I can eat everything I want, and at the same time quickly being full. No dietary restrictions. However, before the intervention I loved beer, and now I do not even want. Finally, I feel light and mobile. No hurting back, legs ... And friends say that I look much younger than ten years ago.

Pauline appeared at a meeting of the newly organized club "Winning overweight". Doctors and people, who have already had surgery of obesity, spoke about the existing techniques for those who want to lose weight.

* Oleg Brager, who now weighs 175 kilograms, says that these clothes for fat people are much more expensive than normal sized.

- Look at me - my weight at my 37 years is 175 kilograms! - Says Oleg Brager from Kiev. - I understand that if nothing is done, then my weight will be two hundred in few years! After I turned 30, each year began to gain from five to ten kilograms. I kept diets, gave up flour and sweet. While limited myself, lost about ten kilograms, but once I returned to the usual diet - again, gained weight, and even more than before.

I agree that there are people who can lose weight by changing the way of life, constantly being engaged in physical activity. I am not like that definitely. Only operation can help to some people. I understand that this is the only way out for me. Doctors at today's meeting told us about the different methods in details, due to which a person begins to lose weight and never gain again. I was not scared of illustrations, which showed how the stomach was reduced and the intestine reshaped. On the contrary, I understood better what surgeons do and thereby manage to get rid of extra kilos.

After conversations with the members of the club Oleg admitted that he himself was ready to have an operation.

"Bypass surgery saves our patients also from diabetes type II"

- In order to reduce the stomach before we had to open the abdominal cavity, and now this operation is done laparoscopically – via six punctures, in which we involve a miniature video camera and tools, - explains the head of the department of surgery of the alimentary canal and intestinal transplantation of National Institute of Surgery and Transplantology named by professor Shalimov A Ivan Todurov. - After this intervention a person recovers quickly. For those who weigh less than 120 kilograms it is enough to have an operation on the stomach. If the patient is heavier, it is necessary to intervene also on the gut - we cut from the digestive process part of the small intestine. Due to this method the carbohydrates that accumulate and form overweight, cannot be digested. Moreover a person gets rid of diabetes of second type, which usually obese people have. After the surgery using the lab tests we see the blood sugar level falling down. Most of our patients stopped taking drugs to help keep sugar at normal rate.

- In Ukraine, every year is performed not more than two hundred operations of the excess weight - adds the chief researcher of the department of surgery of the alimentary canal and intestinal transplantation Professor Leonid Belyanskiy. - While in Belgium, where the population is much less than in Ukraine, such interventions are about six thousand a year, and in Italy - more than three thousand. Many fat people living in our country are even not psychologically ready for such surgery. We hope full people will transcend that barrier with the help of such meetings with doctors and those who took a similar path. Weight reduction only for ten kilograms reduces the risk of vascular events - heart attack or stroke - by 30 per cent, cancer by 40 percent, and blood sugar level - by 50 percent.

- What can you say here it is very socially difficult for obese people, - said to me Oleg. – It is hard to have a job. Another problem is to buy clothes - it costs more than similar, but smaller. I know people who buy two things of the largest size, and then sew them into one. You wear not what you like but what fits you.

Once doctors and patients finished speaking, they were surrounded by those who came to learn about the treatment of obesity. Communication lasted for several hours. More information of the club can be found on the site hirurgia.com.ua.

- We will regularly hold such meetings, - concluded Ivan Todurov. - If, after the first one it will be decided to have an operation, and someone will be able to change his/her life and lose weight on their own – then it is meant we have reached our result and there will be less obese people. For us, this is the main aim.

* The surgeons, nutritionists, cardiologists hope that the meeting of the club "The winning weight" will become regular, so they will be able to help more people